“Suicidal glory is the luxury of the irresponsible. We're not giving up. We're waiting for a better opportunity to win.”

Â

" I don't think I've ever met a Liberal whom I didn't like on a personal basis. That said, if your goal is to change minds and influence people, it's probably not a good idea to begin by asserting that virtually all elected Democrats are liars. But what the hell."

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

MSM Shock: Bush Didn't Lie

Judging the case for war

Published December 28, 2005

Did President Bush intentionally mislead this nation
and its allies into war? Or is it his critics who have misled
Americans, recasting history to discredit him and his policies? If your
responses are reflexive and self-assured, read on.
On Nov. 20, the Tribune began an inquest: We set out to assess the Bush
administration's arguments for war in Iraq. We have weighed each of
those nine arguments against the findings of subsequent official
investigations by the 9/11 Commission, the Senate Intelligence
Committee and others. We predicted that this exercise would distress
the smug and self-assured--those who have unquestioningly supported, or
opposed, this war.

MSM Shock: Bush Didn't Lie

On Nov. 20, the Tribune began an inquest: We set out to
assess the Bush administration's arguments for war in Iraq. We have
weighed each of those nine arguments against the findings of subsequent
official investigations by the 9/11 Commission, the Senate Intelligence
Committee and others....

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE SAID

Intelligence agencies warned the Clinton and Bush administrations
that Hussein was reconstituting his once-impressive program to create
nuclear weapons. In part that intel reflected embarrassment over U.S.
failure before the Persian Gulf war to grasp how close Iraq was to
building nukes.

WHAT WE KNOW TODAY

Four intel studies from 1997-2000 concurred that "If Iraq acquired a
significant quantity of fissile material through foreign assistance, it
could have a crude nuclear weapon within a year." Claims that Iraq
sought uranium and special tubes for processing nuclear material appear
discredited.

THE VERDICT

If the White House manipulated or exaggerated the nuclear
intelligence before the war in order to paint a more menacing portrait
of Hussein, it's difficult to imagine why. For five years, the official
and oft-delivered alarms from the U.S. intelligence community had been
menacing enough.

On all nine arguments for war, the Chicago Tribune finds the White
House's statements about war either accurate or wrong but relying in
good faith upon erroneous intelligence.